(Casey seen with his homebuilt scooter, The Flying Jackhammer, at Sandblast 2007)

It's an eerie feeling to watch a close friend hit the pavement right in front of your eyes. As it's happening you become overwhelmed wondering how this is going to turn out and wishing for the best. Why do I know this? Because it happened last night 4/20/08.

Sunday at around 11pm was a calm night lit by a full moon. Six guys on scooters, the Austin Hooligans Scooter Club, were riding back from our gymkhana planning meet-up in preparation for Austin's forthcoming River Rally. Nothing out of the ordinary was going on. We were on our normal route and reached the straight-away on Stassney where it speeds up a bit. I'd say we were doing 50, maybe to 55mph when suddenly we notice something from a rider in the lead, Casey Cook. His front end began to wiggle. At first I thought he was clowning around, but then it got worse. "What is he doing? If he doesn't straighten up he's gonna wreck", I thought... the wiggle turned into an incontrollable fight and then it happened. The scooter spilled over, tumbling and flipping with the rider tumbling behind. It was horrific! Afterward I paced it off... It took Casey 80 yards to reach a stop. WHAT HAPPENED? He had gotten a case of the "speed wobbles" or more specifically, as it states in the wiki, the "Death Wobbles" (example). Sometimes referred to as a tank-slapper. From what we could gather, the front end on his DIY scooter, the Flying Jackhammer (seen above) had gotten a bit sloppy. Just the little bit of play plus the fact that there was no dampener built into the project and the fact that he was riding toward the back of his scooter leaving the front end light are all suspect.

The worst part about the whole thing was that Casey wasn't expecting to ride that night so he left all his gear (helmet, jacket, gloves) at home (the scooter is kept at the house of another Hooligan who lives closer to town). Casey ALWAYS gears up. At least Chris "The Dude" had a half helmet to lend him. This leads to the original title of this post, "Occasionally, even a tempted fate will cut you a break." As Casey tumbled down the pavement with his scooter sparking ahead of him I feared the worst. An open face half-helmet leaves your face, teeth and chin open to damage. Riding gloveless can leave the skin on your hands peeled back like a banana. Riding jacketless can leave some major road rash, not to mention an assortment of bone fractures at the major contact points (back, shoulders, arms, elbows, chest). Riding without reinforced jeans can lead to more road rash and maybe bone damage and wearing Vans instead of boots leaves your ankles open to even greater damage. Casey was given a break. Sure he received some nasty road-rash along the shoulder, arm hands and legs, a separated shoulder (at least 2-3 weeks in a sling) from his initial impact with the blacktop and a pretty bad sprained ankle, it really could have been SO much worse.

I couldn't think of anything poetic or profound, all I could say to Casey was "great job". Seriously, I know he was thinking the scenario over as it was happening and he managed to recall some of his old skateboard crashing techniques to reduce road rash.

We are all glad that Casey was let off relatively easy. Of course there is healing time, and assorted costs associated with mending himself and his scooter, not to mention time off from work. If you've met Casey before you know he's a great guy. Casey is knowledgeable, sharp as a tack and also a big contributor to the scooter scene. Very few have taken DIY scooter building to the degree that Casey has. The Flying Jackhammer is just one example.

If you'd like to help Casey get back on his feet he could use it. Anything helps.
I've added a relief fund for Casey to this post. We all wish him a speedy recovery.

Read the complete post at http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheScooterScoop/~3/275170397/casey-from-tss-in-bad-wreck-last-night.html